Mason Mentally Fit For Trial, Judge Rules

A Lake County judge ruled Tuesday that although Burl Mason is mentally ill, he is well enough to stand trial for the 1991 rape and murder of a woman in unincorporated Spring Grove.

Lake County Circuit Judge Raymond McKoski said Mason's unusual mental illnesses are real, but not enough to further delay his trial.

The decision means that Mason probably will go to trial this spring and could adopt an insanity defense.

State prosecutors want Mason, 31, put to death for the Aug. 19, 1991, rape and strangulation of Susan Pauly, 38.

Mason's trial has been delayed for 18 months because of the previously convicted felon's physical and mental illnesses. In the last 13 years, medical records show, Mason has sought hospitalization more than 80 times by pretending to be sick or injuring himself by eating metal objects such as coat hangers.

Mason also is confined to a wheelchair, although some experts maintain that he is not physically disabled and able to walk. Psychiatrists say Mason suffers from an unusual mental disorder known as Munchasen syndrome.

But that disorder is no longer severe enough to further delay Mason's murder trial, the judge said Tuesday.

"A person can be fit to stand trial although his mind is not otherwise sound," McKoski said.

He ordered Assistant State's Attorneys Matthew Chancey and John Kornak to be ready for trial on April 5. But David Brodsky, an assistant public defender who represents Mason, said he may ask to have the trial delayed.

Brodsky said he has another capital murder case that may interfere with an April trial for Mason.

In the interim, McKoski said, Mason must continue to get treatment at the Downstate Chester Mental Health Center.

Mason was sent to Chester in October after McKoski ruled that he was not then fit to stand trial. The judge ruled that Mason did not have the mental capacity to cooperate in his murder defense, one of the statutory requirements for fitness to stand trial in Illinois.

Last week, two medical experts from Chester told the judge that Mason responded positively to three months of treatment at Chester. They said they now believe Mason can cooperate with his lawyers and give an accurate account of the slaying of Susan Pauly.

"The essential question is still whether the defendant can cooperate with his counsel," McKoski said Tuesday.

He said he found the testimony of the medical experts from Chester convincing.